Question Surgery

Well, this is it. All things going well I will be under the knife tomorrow, Friday the 13th, where the backs of 2 of my vertebra will be shaved off and then fused together. Supposedly this will eliminate the pressure of my spinal cord and I'll have at least some semblance of my life again.

5 hours of surgery. 3 days at least at the hospital, 8 weeks of recuperation one year to full healing. Prayers welcome…

You've got them, my brother. Get healed quickly.

you can do It my mom had a surgery like that last yr and is doing quite well

Prayers to your health!

Best wishes on your surgery, and a fast recuperation.

Good luck and best wishes.

You will be in my prayers, E.E. Hope you have a quick recovery.

Good Luck, and looking forward to hearing from you, early next week, that you're home and doing great.

Good luck, and best wishes!

Good luck, I can only hope it goes well for you.

Good Luck, I hope everything will be all right for you in the end.

Best wishes and all my prayers. Take the time you need for a good recovery.

Good luck, I hope everything goes smoothly.

*Crosses fingers* Lets hope for no ooops in the OR and a speedy recovery. *Hugs for good luck.*

I lend you my confidence that things will go all right. Leonard McCoy may have said (back in "Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home") that our medicine is from the Dark Ages, but truly, when done right, it is a wonder to behold.

Okay, let's try this scientifically: Hope + Friendship * Passion/ refusal to allow lesser outcome = repeat 100000000 times

I got a text from EE's brother. He's out of surgery and in recovery. He said things went well.

Part 1 is done - now prayers, thoughts, wishes, etc for speedy return home and recovery from the surgery, and for return of feeling in his hands.

Praying for quick and effective recovery!

That's great,now hope he gets over it quickly

okay, someone's got to ask:

"But will he ever play the old moss-covered three-handled family gredunza again?"

I just want to know if he asked the doctor if he'd be able to Tap Dance after the surgery.

He's got a few days in the hospital, then a few weeks of rest at home. Then more healing - it could take up to a year for the vertebrae to fully fuse. My hope (and prayer) for my friend (brother) is that within days, the numbness he's had in his hands vanishes.

Best wishes for a speedy and effective recovery.

May you have a R'fuah Shlema - A complete recovery in both body and spirit

Prayer said for you and your family.

First this is coming from my phone so puzzling weird sentences if I don't have the strength to go back and make corrections. Second thank you so much for everyone for their prayers and well wishes both of you posted here in the comments and if you didn't I just thought of me I appreciate it very much.

Hey Sam doing very well I'm walking without the Walker this morning I am and not in any real pain just soreness and stiffness. Doctors and nurses also had very well and recovering in a remarkable rate. What's the first right news is the tightness in my torso I just felt like I've been having a heart attack since April 1 is blissfully gone and they don't think it's because of the meds but the nerve damage is going to be peeling so the first in last out and since the tightness was the last sometime I got it is the first one gone. And there's a little numb and tingly But the sensation is changing and I'm starting to get sensation back so prognosis looks very good. Love you all and hope to be tormenting Kayden Lonnie shortly!

That's fantastic news.
Fingers crossed that it keeps going smoothly.

Man, these autocorrect things are really annoying... it's like reading something that has gone through a cycle of automatic translation.

As a former translator and sometimes proofreader, let me take a stab at it...

E. E. Nalley wrote: First, this is coming from my phone, so <there are going to be> puzzling weird sentences if I don't have the strength to go back and make corrections. Second, thank you so much for everyone for their prayers and well wishes both if you posted here in the comments and if you didn't and just thought of me I appreciate it very much.

Hey I am doing very well I'm walking without the Walker this morning I am not in any real pain, just soreness and stiffness. Doctors and nurses also said I'm very well and recovering in a remarkable rate. What's the first right news is the tightness in my torso -- I just felt like I've been having a heart attack since April 1 -- is blissfully gone, and they don't think it's because of the meds, but the nerve damage is going to be healing, so the first in last out, and since the tightness was the last thing I got it is the first one gone. And there's a little numbness and tingling. But the sensation is changing and I'm starting to get sensation back so the prognosis looks very good. Love you all and hope to be tormenting Kayda and Lainie shortly!

Do you believe in miracles?

I'm being released today! My recovery is astounding everyone here at the hospital. My pain scale is zero. I have only a sensation of soreness and tightness in the muscles that is relieved by muscle relaxants such as Flexeril and Valium. I'm told I should need Percocets or Laura tabs and that my pain threshold should be in the sixes or sevens.

My surgeon is an absolute artist the surgery site but I took a picture of this morning is neither red, nor swollen. The sutures are a perfect straight line and likely based upon my healing rates in 10 years the scar will not be noticeable. (That is of course my personal experience with scars and not something any medical person is told me.)

This is been a real blessing to me to be able to breathe easily and not feel like I'm in the early stages of a heart attack in an absolute godsend. While I'm still not a touch typist, the sense of touch is returning to my hands in a come and go kind of fashion. I believe it will eventually return as well.

Now I just have to work on paying the bill. This surgery cost 17,000 odd dollars of which my portion is $6000. So it is fortunate that I'm living in an RV in living small so that my salary goes further. But if you feel an overwhelming urge to throw money at me, who am I to say no? You can do so through my go fund me account a link to which is on the first page of my request prayers thread under announcements.

Thank you all so much for your well wishes and comments and prayers which I firmly believe contributed to this miracle I'm experiencing now.

hmm you didn't ride in that splicer with tennyo before she and jade kinda blew it up did ya lol

Congratulations on your good health!

All good news EE... glad to hear things are progressing so well.

Very glad to hear you are recovering so quickly, E.E. May you continue to recover at an amazing rate and be able to enjoy yourself without the pain you have had for so long.

Excellent. I guess we can table the robotic spine... for now.

It was only a plastic wiggly snake at this stage, anyway.

In all seriousness, That's great news. Take it easy and get better.

I am so glad to hear of the miraculous recovery. To be rid of pain and stiffness is a dream few get to experience. Wishing you a year of strength, healing, growth, and comfort.

To be rid of pain would be a wonderful thing, certainly not there yet. But I don't appear to be in the crushing agony that was described either so that's a good thing. Right now my chief concern is money a comfortable position to sit on the doesn't have my tailbone going numb or aggravating my shoulders. They were slowly getting by, thanks everyone very much for your kind wishes and prayers.

Gratz on your healing, dude.

It's the follow-up that's going to be work.

Some suggestions from my own experiences with spinal surgery:

• Rest and take it easier to start with. Your body has just had a major trauma. The fact that the trauma was aimed at helping you, that don't matter. You'll have to recover from the surgery, as well as the condition that the surgery was aimed at fixing.
• Change your diet. You remember the scene in the restaurant in Rome, where Paige is complaining about being constipated from a high calcium diet? This is very true, and it's a very disagreeable experience to undergo.... You'll need to change your diet so as to optimise the conditions for your body to heal. Upping your intake of milk can help your vertebrae, but a better option is shark cartilage. It requires less processing by your liver and kidney's in order for your body to make it into useful ingredients for bone repair. Best source, if you don't live next to the sea, is vac-packed frozen shark steaks.
• Change your physical living conditions. You'll be more susceptible to colder temperatures, especially around that part of your spine. Stay warm.
• Don't push yourself to do too much straight away. It'll be frustrating, but you'll have to put up with a different set of operating parameters for at least a year.
• Do the follow-up physiotherapy. and more importantly, LISTEN TO WHAT YOUR PHYSIO TELLS YOU! I had to add an extra two months to my recovery by trying to do too much, too soon.
• As soon as you can start on the muscle-healing, try some whole body exercise. Yoga is good. Swimming is better, though that will have to wait, until your skin seals. But, and this is an important but, follow what your physiotherapist tells you.

And good luck. It's a scary kind of surgery to have happen to you, but it beats the alternative.

I wake up each morning and say to myself "I'm alive!", and then plan what mischief i will get up to that day.

Go do something similar, and don't forget to say thank you to the nursing staff, as well as the surgeons.

Mister D wrote: Gratz on your healing, dude.
Change your diet. You remember the scene in the restaurant in Rome, where Paige is complaining about being constipated from a high calcium diet?

Eh, that would have been not so much the calcium in her diet as the milk products she was getting it through - dairy foods are notoriously "binding".

Assuming that vitamin D levels are good, and there are no hormone problems lurking about, it doesn't matter how you ingest your dietary calcium. It's absorbed as calcium ions through the intestines. Any excess is excreted as calcium ions via the kidneys.